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AN EXPERIMENT 



SILK-CULTURE 



MARGARETTE W. BROOKS 



Reprinted frDiii A/ipletoii.i' " Pujiaiiir Scieiiee \I<>iit/ili/,'' July, 1SS(! 



\ NOV 16 1&86 



f* AN EXPERIMENT IN SILK-CULTURE. 317 



AN EXPERIMENT IN SILK-CULTUEE. 

Br MAEGAEETTE W. BEOOKS. 

IN an article on silk-culture, published in " Harper's Magazine " 
more than a quarter of a century ago, the following passage oc- 
curs : " "We shall soon be ready to begin that which the next century 
will find us doing with all our might — commanding the silk as we now 
do the cotton markets of the world." AVhen we consider how little 
has been accomplished since that time, it is to be feared that this 
prophecy will not be realized unless greater advances are made in the 
next twenty-tive years than were made in the last. Repeated trials 
seem only to show that silk-raising in the United States is not as prof- 
itable an industry as it was formerly thought to be. 

The culture of silk is so old that we can not tell when it was 
begun, or by whom it was first discovered. The Chinese claim that it 
was known to them as early as 2600 b. c. Almost all Roman and 
Greek authors mention it, but it was probably unknown in Europe 
until the sixth century after Christ, and not until the sixteenth cent- 
ury was it successfully started in France. 

In the year 1714 the manufacture of silk was begun in England. 
James I tried to establish it in Virginia ; and in Georgia in 1732 lands 
were granted on condition that on every ten acres of cleared land one 
hundred white mulberry-trees should be planted, and, on the seal of 
that State, silk-worms in various stages of their growth were repre- 
sented. Two or three years later the first export, consisting of eight 
pounds of raw silk, was sent to England, and the silk manufactured 
from it was presented to the Queen. In the year 1759 ten thousand 
pounds were exported, but after the introduction of cotton the culture 
of silk declined, and the last exportation from Georgia was made in 
1790. 

In the year 1771 Pennsylvania and New Jersey began the culture 
of silk, and experiments were also tried in New York and other 
States. In an old newspaper, under the date of 1786, we read, "Late 
Philadelphia papers mention, as an extraordinary circumstance, that 
a family in Maryland have upward of two thousand silk-worms at 
work." 

The Revolution put an end to silk-raising for a time, but in the 
early part of this century the culture of silk was again started in a 
number of States, among others in Louisiana and South Carolina, and 
even before this one of our New England States — Connecticut— began 
the culture of silk. In the year 1790 it was said that fifty families in 
New Haven were raising silk, and in a newspaper for the year 1787 
we read that " a young miss in New Haven will soon wear a silk gown 
of her own make." In the same paragraph the hope is expressed that 



3i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 

soon it may be " esteemed disreputable, by both ladies and gentlemen, 
to wear any thick silk but of our ov, n manufacture." 

In 1819 five tons of raw silk were raised at Mansfield, Connecticut, 
and the manufacture of silk is still carried on there. In the year 183.5 
we read of a company formed in Rhode Island having a large planta- 
tion of about thu'ty thousand mulberry-trees, and the State Legislatui-e 
of that year offers a premium of fifty cents on every pound of silk 
raised and reeled in that State within two years from the passage of 
the act. "Rhode Island is likely," so the paper says, "to take the 
lead in the manufacture of silk as she did in cotton. 

That the interest in the culture of silk must have been kept up, for 
a time at least, is shown by the fact that in 1840 the United States 
exported 61,5.')3 jiounds of raw silk, and in 1844 396,790 pounds, but 
in 1850 only 14,703 pounds were exported, while in 1870 the census 
gives no statistics of silk raised in this country. 

About 18G0 the culture of silk was started in California, where the 
conditions of climate seemed specially favorable for its success, and 
for some years it was carried on ; but by 1878 it had greatly declined, 
owing possibly to commerci.il and industrial depression. Whether the 
industry continues to any extent we have not ascertained. 

In the year 1883 the Department of Agriculture received many 
letters from persons interested in the culture of silk, and distributed a 
few silk-worm eggs, but there was no general distribution. 

In 1884 the dep.artment appropriated fifteen thousand dollars for 
the encouragement of the industry, and a special agent was appointed 
to attend to the work, the department offering to send eggs to any 
one who would try the experiment of raising them. I should judge, 
however, that no very favor.able reports were received, as, at a meeting 
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in 1885, 
as reported in "Science," Professor Riley stated that the culture of 
silk had been tried in the United States for fifty years, and all that 
the experiments had shown so f.ar was that silk could be raised over 
three fourths of the United States if there was a market for the 
cocoons. He considers the industry best conducted on a small scale, 
and adapted for women and children who have no other way of earn- 
ing money. The profit for three persons he estimates at fifteen to 
twenty-five dollars for the season, provided the cocoons bring one 
dollar a pound — a price, by-the-way, which only the best cocoons bring. 

The care of silk-worms is decidedly wearisome, interesting though 
it may be ; and certainly any woman enterprising enough to start in 
the experiment of raising silk, and strong enough to do the necessary 
work, might find soine more profitable way of utilizing her time. 

Mr. Edward Atkinson, at the same meeting of the Association 
above mentioned, maintained that the culture of silk in the United 
States was not desirable, since there was no lack of employment, as 
the high rate of wages shows, and we can not afford to do for our- 



AN EXPERIMENT IN SILK-CULTURE. 319 

selves what foreign laborers will do cheaper ; and, moreover, the rais- 
ing of silk has always been carried on by the poorest and most ineffi- 
cient peoples, who, as they rise in the social scale, abandon it, as is 
now coming to be the case in Southern France — France being unable 
to compete with the cheap labor of China and Japan. It may be 
added that another reason for the decline of silk-culture in France is 
said to be due to climatic changes. 

One spring my attention was called to an article on silk-culture in 
which it was stated that silk could be successfully and profitably 
raised in the United States. The article then went on to quote from 
a manual written by a young girl, who had tried silk-raising and had 
been very successful. By a strange coincidence, in a few days a friend 
offered me an ounce of silk-worm eggs which she had just received 
froni the Department of Agriculture at Washington. Not having the 
time, and possibly the inclination, to raise the worms herself, she kind- 
ly gave them to me, and I determined to try the experiment of raising 
silk-worms in one of the New England States. 

During three or four months of cold weather the eggs were kept 
in a cool place in a cellar, at as even a temperature as was practicable, 
the thermometer rarely, if ever, going below freezing-point, and never 
rising above forty degrees. 

The mulberry-tree, upon which the worm feeds, is one of the last 
trees to leave out in the spring ; but soon after the 1st of June the 
leaves began to show themselves, and on the 11th of June the eggs 
were placed in a warm room, where, on the 13th, they had begun to 
hatch. Only a few worms appeared that day ; the two following days 
there were more, and on the lOth and 17th great numbers appeared. 
It is estimated that there are forty thousand eggs in an ounce, but only 
between two and three thousand of my lot hatched. However, a 
number of the eggs had been given away, and probably some were 
unfertilized, or had been killed. 

Then began the task of keeping the worms supplied with food ; 
and, fortunately, I had found a friend willing to undertake the experi- 
ment with me, for a task it indeed proved. The white mulberry is 
not common in Salem, and the nearest tree was nearly one quarter of 
a mile from the house, and often we went a greater distance for the 
leaves. At first a small number of leaves were sufficient, but in a 
week or two my frieM .and myself had all we could do to keep the 
worms, which were growing rapidly, supplied with fresh leaves ; then, 
too, the lower branches of the tree, which was a large one, were soon 
stripped, and some one had to climb the tree for us. Fresh leaves had 
to be picked every day, sometimes twice and even three times a day. 
This in itself took some time, and, if the leaves were at all damp, they 
had to be wiped or dried in some way before filling the trays. 

The trays in which the worms were kept had to be very carefully 
cleaned, and all the refuse removed every day. As the worms grew 



320 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 

larger they, of course, needed more space, and our room was gradu- 
ally filling with extemporized tables and shelves covered with trays. 
The cleaning of one tray seems a small matter, but when there are 
over fifty trays to clean and fill with fresh leaves it takes a good while, 
and often we did not get to bed until midnight. As early as possible 
in the morning we were again at work feeding the worms, and for 
thirty days we were kept incessantly employed, oftentimes feeling dis- 
couraged, as the leaves were hard to get and the weather hot and de- 
bilitating. Still, we were determined to do the best we could, and so 
persevered in our self-imposed task. 

Thirty days from the time of hatching, having lost no worms by 
disease, the spinning of the first cocoon was begun, and a relief it was 
to see a large worm crawling restlessly around the edge of the box 
leaving traces of silk in the corners. Two days later the worms were 
spinning in earnest, and we found our work of feeding and cleaning 
somewhat lessened. We tied together twigs and straw, upon which 
the worms made their cocoons. Following a friend's suggestion, we 
begged from a grocer some of the straw coverings of wine-bottles, and 
these the worms seemed to like very much. The room now presented 
a very different appearance from that which it had a week or two 
before. Instead of the rows of boxes, the tables were covered with 
straw tent-like arrangements upon which were the yellow cocoons. 

Before all had finished spinning, we thought it time to steam a part 
of the cocoons, and here we met with our first difiiculty. None of the 
books on the subject, which we had at our disposal, gave any very 
definite ideas as to the method by which this part of the work might 
be accomplished. 

Finally, after considerable perplexity, we made arrangements to 
have the steaming done at a boiler-room. We laid about eight hun- 
dred of the cocoons on a layer of cloth netting in a large box, at one 
end of which a hole had been made and a round gas-tube inserted. 
To this tube was attached a pipe from the boiler, and for twenty min- 
utes, the time specified in a rejwrt published by the Department of 
Agriculture, the steam was allowed to enter the box. At the end of 
that time we found to our dismay that many of the cocoons had been 
blown to one end of the box, forming a sticky mass. If we had been 
almost discour.aged before, we certainly were discouraged now. How- 
ever, we dried them in the sun, and a few were sent to the Woman's 
Silk-Culture Association in Philadelphia, with a letter, asking whether 
we had steamed them too much, and for information in regard to 
steaming the rest, of which we also inclosed a sample. In answer to 
our request, a printed circular containing general directions was sent 
to us, but no special directions as to steaming the others ; but we were 
informed that our worms had been insufficiently fed ; the cocoons were 
small, and steamed too much ; and the fresh cocoons could not be 
reeled. 



AN EXPERIMENT IN SILK-CULTURE. 321 

As there is but little market for cocoons in this country, all at- 
tempts to reel the silk here having been unsuccessful, we had not ex- 
pected to realize much from the sale of the cocoons, still to be told 
that they were absolutely worthless was rather disappointing after our 
six weeks of hard work. We decided, however, to have the rest of 
the cocoons steamed, and these we did ourselves in a common steamer, 
and very much nicer they looked than our first lot. 

But what was meant by our worms being insufficiently fed was not 
understood, and again we applied to the Woman's Silk-Culture Asso- 
ciation for information, and this time we received a more satisfactory 
answer, though it seemed that our worms, instead of being underfed, 
may have been overfed, for the letter said they must not be fed while 
molting, and our worms had been fed at these periods. The " Report " 
gave the same information, but we understood the reason to be simply 
that time might be saved if worms of the same age could be made to 
molt together. But we found it difficult and well-nigh impossible to 
make them all molt at the same time, so finally were compelled to give 
them leaves as usual, supposing that those worms molting would not 
eat unless they needed food. In everything else we followed the 
directions given in the " Report " as nearly as possible. The worms 
certainly had plenty of room, fresh air, a uniform temperature, and as 
to the last requisite mentioned in the book — namely, cleanliness — we 
are sure that that condition at least was rigidly complied with, the 
trays being cleaned every day, and sometimes even oftener if it seemed 
necessary. 

The room in which the worms were kept was on the northern side 
of the house, and had one northern and one eastern window, and a 
fireplace in which a fire was made whenever the weather was a little 
cool or damp, so it was comparatively easy to regulate the temperature. 

In the second letter received from the Woman's Silk-Culture Asso- 
ciation we were told that no one could expect to make anything from 
silk-raising until after two or three years' experience, and yet many 
papers s])eak of silk-raising as an employment, perha])s not very profit- 
able, still a light employment for children and old people who can 
earn money in no other way. For farmers' wives this industry is also 
recommended, though where the ordinary farmer's wife is going to 
find the time for the business, coming as it does in the middle of the 
summer, when her work is heaviest, is not explained. One would 
think that any woman who could take care of silk-worms might earn 
more money in the same time raising chickens, selling eggs, or in light 
gardening, than by the sale of cocoons. Of course, like everything 
else, it requires skill and more especially experience, but there are few 
light employments that would not bring in a little money even the 
first year. To be sure, the outlay in the beginning is small ; but had 
our cocoons been the ordinary size, and suitable for reeling, we could 
not, at the price cocoons are now bringing, have received more than 
VOL. xxis. — 21 



322 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 

five dollars to pay us for the time spent in taking care of the worms 
during six weeks of intensely hot weather. Our expenses, not counting 
the cost of the fuel burned, amounted to over one dollar and fifty cents. 

That others have had somewhat similar experiences is shown by the 
following extracts from recent newspapers. From Springfield, Massa- 
chusetts, a lady writes that, although she had but about eight hundred 
silk-worms, they kept her very busy during the last molt picking 
leaves, and she should not advise any one to engage iu the business 
unless one is willing to work, for it is not an emploj'ment for lazy 
people. In return for her cocoons, which she sent to the New York 
Silk Exchange, she received a silk handkerchief and some embroidery 
floss made from her own cocoons, valued at about one dollar and twen- 
ty-five cents, which she thought " poor ])ay for six weeks' work." Her 
expenses, not counting time and labor, amounted to one dollar and six- 
ty-three cents. 

A widow in Ohio thought that the culture of silk might prove a 
pleasant and profitable way of supporting herself and two children ; 
but after some expense and " six weeks of hard work, Sundays and all, 
found that she had not made a dollar by the operation." 

From the " Massachusetts Plowman " the following extract is 
quoted : " Silk-culture requires a very close, unremitting attention on 
the part of those engaged in it, and if the work is not laborious it is 
so constant as to prevent the following of any other occupation at the 
same time. Those who desire to engage in sericulture will do well to 
consider thoroughly the matter." 

One thing I can say in regard to the experiment, it is interesting 
work, though, whether it would be so to a person not interested at the 
outset in such matters I can not say ; and, besides, it keeps one so 
busy that the interesting points are often overlooked. Yet I am sure 
tliat numerous friends who saw the worms in their different stages 
thoroughly enjoyed them, and it was of some account certainly to 
have interested so many people in a subject of so much importance. 
How many children, and I may say older people as well, never knew 
before that a moth came from a catei'pillar, or that a worm formed the 
cocoon from which all our silk is made ! 



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